News

This year we were blessed by the N Bar Ranch with 5 cow elk hunts that were raffled off, which in turn raised funds for Montana Wounded Warriors. The winners were Clay Buck Miller, Jim Watson, Ron Trowbridge, Travis Grove, and Tyler Hiltner. We would like to express our deepest appreciation to the Wilks family and their generosity. Not only were we able to send 9 wounded veterans to their ranch this year to harvest cow elk, the money raised from the raffles will continue to send more wounded Montana veterans on future hunts throughout the state. We have been truly blessed. Thanks again to everyone at the N Bar!!

Montana Wildlife Taxidermy shop owners, Paul And Kim Albertoni, have been helping wounded vets by donating their labor to mount deer, elk and bear that have been harvested on our hunts. Paul and Kim have been willing to charge Montana Wounded Warriors for just the materials of the beautiful mounts they create. They see this as their way of giving back to the men and women who serve our country. Pictured are Paul and Kim on either side of Nathan Pross when he picked up his elk mount at their shop. We would like to thank the Albertonis for their continued generosity to our wounded veterans.

As the 2017 hunting season winds down, I have had time to ponder on what a epic season it was. Truly one of my best seasons yet! It kicked off earlier than expected with the opportunity to be a trip leader on a new archery elk hunt in the Big Hole. Christy Bennett and Tom Pitzinger brain-trusted a hunt for veterans Brandon Olsen, Kevin Martin, Chuck Cloud and myself, to share in their sacred elk hunting ground. Christy and Tom’s families rolled out the red carpet in the middle of nowhere, somewhere on the Montana-Idaho border. With bugling elk and a grunting bull moose surrounding us it was a going to be an unbelievable hunt. We all walked through the marshes and up and down the mountains and tended our sore feet around the camp fire in the evening, and loved every minute of it. Great food, a roaring fire, and, if I’m being honest, cold beer, lead to tons of stories and laughter. Having a nice 5×5 bull come screaming in to Tom’s angry bugle and stopping broadside at 50 yards had my adrenaline pumping like I haven’t experienced since Iraq. Even though I shanked it and shot right over his back, it was truly a success. See, these hunts are not always about harvesting something, but rather creating new friendships and support channels for veterans. It was an awesome experience to be a part of and to make new life friends.
-Mackay Mathiason

Montana Wounded Warriors had the privilege to be contacted and given permission to bring any of our Wounded Warriors that had drawn a special draw archery 410 elk tag to hunt on their land. We went and met the awesome landowners and they took us around and scouted out several bull elk for us. It was a great day meeting the ranch owners but now we had to get busy setting up a blind and get the Wounded Warriors who had tags for this area. It didn’t take long to find two Wounded Warriors, Mike Bossen and Chad Kiernan, who had the tags and the excitement to accept this opportunity. We had the plan and gear set up and the Warriors were geared to go and then perfect conditions turned into weeks of rain. We decided to tough it out and we sat in the blind for hours and watched over a dozen nice bull elk just stay a half mile away from us and the water hole. After a day of not getting the elk to come in, we went on a stalk. Chad and Mike went around the back side of the hill where the elk were and before they could even get to the elk, they spotted another bull bedded down within range of them. They moved in on the bull and Chad was setting up to shot when the bull stood up to take off and Chad released his arrow to hit the bull. We tracked the bull for miles with very little blood and never did find him in the huge amount of country. The Warriors were crushed but we wanted to head back to the blind to set up for an evening hunt. As we returned to the blind, we noticed that our decoy and blind had been racked with mud and elk tracks. So while we were out stalking, the elk had made their way into the water hole and vandalized our blind and decoy. It was a tough hunt, and we were just not in the right place at the right time, but boy did we have fun. We had a great group of Warriors and we sure were grateful for the landowner’s permission to hunt and for Dan and Marcie Ahlgen for allowing us to stay in their guest house for this trip. We did not get an elk, but the Warriors had a great time and we met some proud supporters of our soldiers.

Montana Wounded Warriors would like to thank Art and Vicky Garrison for donating a German Wire-haired Pointer to Chuck Hayter, a wounded veteran from the war in Afghanistan. Chuck and his family live in the Billings area. The dog will be a great addition to their family, and has the potential of being a great hunting companion. Thanks again to the Garrisons for supporting our wounded vets.

Recent investigations have revealed that the Wounded Warriors Project (WWP) based in Florida has misused a lot of the donations that they have received from American supporters of our wounded veterans. We at Montana Wounded Warriors would like to assure all of our supporters that we have never been associated with WWP and never will be. We don’t have staff and administrators with outrageous salaries – we are all volunteers. We don’t throw extravagant parties that cost millions of dollars that should be used to help our wounded vets. We appreciate every dollar that is donated by our fellow Montanan’s and try to be the best stewards of the funds you have entrusted us with. We don’t exploit our wounded veterans to enrich ourselves and are extremely disgusted with those who do.

We have concerns that because we have the words “Wounded Warriors” as part of our name people may assume we are involved with this terrible abuse to our veterans and those that support organizations that help our wounded vets. We are very proud of the fact that we are a stand alone organization based here in Montana that will use all the resources we receive to benefit our wounded Montana Veterans. Below is a part of a letter sent to the editors of many of the papers around the State.

Well the cat is out of the bag. What many of us involved with Military Service organizations have known for some time has finally been made public in a big way. Wounded Warriors Project misuses much of the donations it receives. We have heard claims by former veterans who were employed by WWP who have told us that either they felt their status as wounded veterans was being exploited by the organization to raise funds or that the funds donated to the organization were being misused. Any one who looked into the organization knew that the people running the organization were being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary that could have been used to help our returning wounded veterans. I think the figures used that state 60% of their funds are donated for veterans services is probably high and could well be under 50%.

I would like to reiterate to everyone that Montana Wounded Warriors is a separate organization which has never been affiliated with WWP and never will be. We are a stand alone 501-c3 not for profit based here in Flathead County. We have no paid staff, and we don’t throw lavish parties and call them training sessions. We raise funds to serve our returning wounded Montana veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We focus on taking these wounded veterans on high quality hunting and fishing trips right here in our State. The funds we receive from our generous donors make sure that our vets have no out of pocket cost. We pay for transportation, food , lodging, ammo, outfitters, meat processing, taxidermy and any other cost that might be associated with our trips. These trips allow us to take anywhere from 2-12 wounded vets out together to bond and heal. We feel that the best therapy for our combat vets to deal with their wounds is to be around other combat wounded veterans with the same experiences. We have also started to provide service dogs and help with food donations to those veterans in need. We have been doing this for the last 5 years and have been able to increase the number of trips and services to our veterans because of the generous donations we have received from the great people of the State of Montana who have supported our mission. The residents of this state respect and support those who have served in the military. They also want to show those who have been wounded physically and mentally in combat how much they appreciate their sacrifice to preserve our freedom.

You might run into a wounded vet who has been on one of our trips or hear about us from other people, but you will never receive a letter in the mail or see a commercial on TV asking for your donation. If you ever do donate to our organization, please realize that your funds will be used to benefit our wounded veterans to the fullest extent possible.